US QUIETLY SHIPPING WEAPONS TO ISRAEL
Hundreds of 2,000lb mega bombs sent despite concerns over famine in Rafah
The US last week quietly authorised the transfer of hundreds of 2,000lb bombs to Israel, despite growing concerns over a planned offensive on Rafah and a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.
The arms shipments, worth billions of dollars, will include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000lb bombs and 500 MK82 500lb ones, according to reports by the Washington Post and Reuters.
The 2,000lb bombs are very rarely used by Western militaries anymore — due to the scale of civilian casualties they can cause. Several investigations have shown Israel uses them extensively in Gaza.
The bombs have been linked to masscasualty events, such as the October 31 bombing of Jabalia refugee camp that killed more than 100 people.
In a separate package last week, the US state department also authorised the transfer of 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines worth roughly $2.5bn (£1.98bn), US officials told the Washington Post.
The fresh arms shipments came despite the relationship between the Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu regimes being at a low ebb over Israel’s conduct in the war on Gaza.
The reports of the arms packages followed Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant visiting Washington last week to listen to the US proposals for a “middle ground” on the Rafah offensive that may limit Palestinian bloodshed.
Just days before the meeting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the US of torpedoing efforts to release the hostages by allowing a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire to pass.
“In Gaza today, the number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low,” US defence secretary Lloyd Austin told Israeli defence minister Gallant in public remarks before their meeting at the Pentagon. “We need immediate increases in assistance to avert famine.”
The authorisations for the new weapons deals have not been publicly disclosed. Some US Democrats have been calling on Joe Biden to condition military aid to Israel until there is a visible commitment to minimise civilian casualties during the planned attack on Rafah.
In the run-up to the US presidential election, the American president on Friday acknowledged the “pain being felt” by Arab Americans over the US support for Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza.
Meanwhile, ships carrying 332 tons of food for Gaza left Cyprus’s Larnaca port yesterday in a convoy which will reach the besieged enclave early next week.
It is the second shipment this month after Israel eased a 17-year naval blockade on the Gaza Strip to allow aid in from Cyprus, sourced by US charity World Central Kitchen for starving Palestinians.
The aid will be taken to Gaza on a cargo ship and a barge towed by a salvage vessel, along with a tugboat carrying a support team. The journey will take about 60 hours, a Cypriot official said.
Cypriot authorities have established, in cooperation with Israel, a maritime corridor to facilitate pre-screened caroff goes arriving directly in Gaza.
World Central Kitchen, which has been active in Gaza for months, arranged the mission with Spain’s Open Arms charity, with financing mainly from the UAE and support from Cypriot authorities.
On its first mission earlier in March, it built a makeshift jetty from rubble to offload almost 200 tons of food in the enclave, which does not have any port facilities. Yesterday’s convoy includes two forklifts and a crane to assist with future marine deliveries, as well as a team to operate the crane.
The US is constructing a floating pier Gaza to receive aid with a target for completion of May 1, though it could be ready by around April 15, said Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides this weekend, citing briefings with US officials earlier in the week.
The United Nations has warned that famine is imminent in the northern Gaza Strip, where 300,000 people are trapped by fighting. More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million could face famine by July.
Aid agencies say food delivered by sea to Gaza, though welcome, cannot meet people’s needs. They have urged Israel to allow more aid to arrive by land.
UN officials have accused Israel of blocking humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Israeli officials reject those accusations and say the delivery of aid once inside the territory is the responsibility of UN and humanitarian agencies.
Earlier, in a developing controversy, Israeli military officials said their troops shot dead two Palestinians and injured a third on a Gaza beach.
The comments were in response to a video that showed one man falling to the ground after walking in an open area and then a bulldozer pushing two bodies into the rubbish-strewn sand. The military said their troops opened fire on the men after they ignored warning shots.
The video was broadcast earlier this week by the Al Jazeera television network. The origin of the footage remains unknown, as is the date of the incident.
Al Jazeera said at least two of the three men seen in the blurry videos were waving white flags before being shot at.
The video follows a number of similar clips that have surfaced showing Palestinians in Gaza being killed while posing little or no threat to Israeli forces.
In January, footage showed a man being shot dead while walking in a group of people waving a white flag.
Another video broadcast by Al Jazeera last week showed an Israeli missile strike killing at least four Palestinians walking on a sandy path in southern Gaza.
In response to the beach shootings, the Israeli army said yesterday that the video was edited and depicts two separate incidents across different locations.
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Al Jazeera said both shootings took place close to each other on a beachfront south-west of Gaza city.
In the video, one man is seen walking away from Israeli forces before he falls to the ground, apparently after being shot.
He is seen raising his hands above his head at one point and Al Jazeera said he was waving a white flag in the moments before he is hit.
In a different part of the video, another Palestinian man is seen approaching nearby Israeli forces, waving what Al Jazeera says is also a white flag, before venturing off camera.
Finally, the lifeless bodies of two men are seen being dragged through the sand, one after the another, by an Israeli bulldozer.
The Israeli army claimed the bodies were bulldozed out of fear that the men may have had explosives on them.